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From Sola Ojo, Kaduna
The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), Kaduna State University (KASU), on Thursday, called on the Federal Government to honour the agreement it entered with the union in 2020 to avert a looming industrial action.
Dr Peter Adamu and Mustapha Jumare, Chairman and Secretary ASUU-KASU, respectively, in a statement, decried the worsening conditions of living of an average Nigerian lecturer in the face of ever-rising inflation.
According to them, the slave salaries of lecturers can no longer take them home resulting in most of them are grappling with one form of misery or the other.
The statement t read in part:
“The Union is particularly petrified that after about 13 years, the condition of service in Nigerian universities has remained stagnant without any deliberate effort from the government to review.
“Again, almost 13 months that the December 2020 FGN/ASUU Memorandum of Action (MOA) was signed, the government has partially implemented a few leaving aside the most pressing issues in the agreement.
“Worse is the forceful deployment of IPPIS that had grossly mutilated the meagre salaries of our members and placed them almost below the poverty line. The deficiencies of IPPIS and its corrupt tendencies made the union utilize the local content act to create a more sophisticated and efficient platform for the university system.
“As of today, all requirements as prescribed by NITDA has been fulfilled but the government is still foot-dragging on the deployment of UTAS to universities as a payment platform.
“As a matter of national emergency, Government should immediately address the pending issues in the December 2020 MOA to avert an impending strike action.”
The union also cautioned the university commission to desist from indiscriminate issuance of approval for the establishment of additional universities while the existing ones are struggling to survive due to paucity of funds.
“In another twist, the bill to amend the NUC act to stop the proliferation of universities by State government is still lying fallow at the National Assembly. It is said that at this time the government is lamenting the paucity of funds, more universities are being established to assert pressure on the limited resources.
“Nigerians should be worried that State universities, which should serve as an elixir to the provision of university education, are at the brim of total collapse.
“Most of the State universities are neck-deep in crises associated with funding, Earned Academic Allowances (EAA), domestication of the Universities (Miscellaneous Provisions) (Amendment) Act (2003, 2012), pension matters, salary payments and third-party deductions, and overall development of the state universities”, the union added.
It however urged all stakeholders – civil society organisations, students union and well-meaning Nigerians to prevail on this issue to keep Nigerian universities afloat.
